news: 16 Jan 2008

Entrepreneurship Takes Off in Ireland
from the New York Times
Can the same occur in the Mahoning Valley?

"The relatively new emphasis on entrepreneurs in Ireland is the culmination of nearly four decades of government policies that have lifted the economy from centuries of poverty to modern prosperity.

The change began when Ireland entered the European Union in 1973. In subsequent years, the government rewrote its tax policies to attract foreign investment by American corporations, made all education free through the university level and changed tax rates and used direct equity investment to encourage Irish people to set up their own businesses.

“The change came in the 1990s,” said James Murphy, founder and managing director of Lifes2Good, a marketer of drugstore products for muscle aches, hair loss and other maladies. “Taxes and interest rates came down, and all of a sudden we believed in ourselves.”"

Mitt Won, Authenticity Lost
by Ron Fournier, Associated Press Writer

"The former Massachusetts governor pandered to voters, distorted his opponents' record and continued to show why he's the most malleable — and least credible — major presidential candidate.

And it worked.

The man who spoke hard truths to Michigan lost. Of all the reasons John McCain deserved a better result Tuesday night, his gamble on the economy stands out. The Arizona senator had the temerity to tell voters that a candidate who says traditional auto manufacturing jobs "are coming back is either naive or is not talking straight with the people of Michigan and America."

Instead of pandering, McCain said political leaders must "embrace green technologies," adding: "That's the future. That's what we want."

Judging by the brief campaign in Michigan, one candidate would flail away at the problem with empty rhetoric while the other would ask Americans to come to grips with the harsh realities of global competition, a tech-based economy and the urgent need to retrain a generation of workers.

Those aren't easy things for a politicians to say, but the truth is, the days are gone in Michigan and elsewhere when a high school graduate could land a factory job and count on a comfortable, stable middle-class life: a nice home, two cars, college tuition, health insurance and a pension.

Romney didn't talk about any of that.

Instead, he told voters what he thought they wanted to hear."

Akron Biomedical Corridor Gets Boost
from the Akron Beacon-Journal

"Akron General Medical Center and the Akron Global Business Accelerator will work together to attract, develop and grow young biomedical companies.

The collaboration is the latest step in strengthening the identity of the Akron Biomedical Corridor, a swath of land surrounding Akron's downtown hospitals that's being targeted for medical-related development.

A memorandum of understanding between Akron General's Office of Technology Transfer, Commercialization and Innovation and Akron's business incubator hopes to generate more opportunities for local companies to research, develop and test medical products and services."